OSE/ΟΣΕ A.9101 & A.9105, 5th October 2014

O.S.E./Ο.Σ.Ε. Alcos A.9101 & A.9105 seen working on the first day of PTG charter train that intended to travel as much of the remaining OSE metre-gauge network as possible.

The opening scene shows the train on its way from Patras shed to the station with OSE Alco A.9101 leading the train. A.9105 is the loco at the rear. The filming location is from the balcony of a room in the Hotel Astir, which gave the bonus of a nice reflection in the windows of the Anek Lines building next to the hotel and the view across the harbour.

The train is next seen crossing the Akti Dimeon road after departing Patras station.

At Mintilogli, the train slowly crosses the road, followed by a similar experience near Monodendri and again near Vraichneika. Because all the automatic crossing lights and gates were not in use the train made slow progress as it had to stop at each crossing to ensure no collisions with road traffic occurred. Ominous dark clouds can be seen to the north.

At Anemomilos a member of OSE staff appears to stop the traffic up at a crossing to allow the train to pass without slowing down.

At Achaia the train passes under the road bridge and then A.9105 is seen powering across the girder bridge over the Peiros river.

At Lappa the weather had changed to rain. As can be seen, road traffic is impatient. Just beyond Lappa on the Patras - Pirghos road, the train is chased through Neo Vaparisio to Neo Manolada.

At Neo Manolada the train surprised the local population who had been using the crossing for their Sunday market. After a few minutes the track was cleared and the train continued toward Varda, seen from alongside the Patras - Pirghos road. The train paused at Varda.

When it continued the rain also started again, getting worse as the train went slowly from crossing to crossing between Varda and Lechena.

At Andravida a car drivers is surprised by the train at a crossing!

From Kavasila to Gastouni the train was chased from the road, then at Amaliada where it stopped a lot of traffic.

At Pyrgos the train is seen taking the route from the main line to the Katakolo Branch. Once past Aghios Ioannis the train picked up speed, largely due to someone driving ahead of the train and stopping traffic at crossings.

From Katakolo A.9105 had a chance to lead the train, with good Alco sound! After leaving Katakolo a crew member can be seen walking round the outside of the locomotive to attend to a problem. Along the way the same crew member tries in vain to clean the window of rain.

At Pyrgos the train returned back up the same curve to regain the line to the station so that A.9101 would be leading again. Once the train had arrived at the station several OSE 94xx locomotives are seen as well as Alco A.9103 and a very sad looking steam locomotive, believed to be SEK 7115, a 2-8-2 built by Breda in 1951 as SPAP 115.

[Various HD sources]

00:00 Patras/Πάτρα
02:39 Akti Dimeon/Ακτή Δυμαίων
05:29 Mintilogi/Μιντιλόγλι
08:29 Monodendri/Μονοδένδρι
09:45 Vrachneika/Βραχναίικα
10:35 Anemomilos/Ανεμόμυλος
11:19 Achaia/Αχαΐα
14:18 Lappa/Λάπας
18:44 Nea Manolada/Νέα Μανολάδα
22:36 Varda/Βάρδα
31:11 Lechena/Λεχαινα
33:54 Andravida/Ανδραβίδα
36:29 Kavasila/Καβάσιλας
39:11 Amaliada/Αμαλιάδα
41:56 Pyrghos/Πύργος
43:59 Road to Katakolo/Κατάκολ
45:29 Aghios Ioanis/Αγίου Ιωάννου
54:38 Katakolo/Κατάκολ
57:54 Kallithea/Καλλιθέα
01:06:04 Aghios Ioanis/Αγίου Ιωάννου
01:07:51 Pyrgos/Πύργος
01:11:05 Station/Σταθμός

#alcolocomotive